


Out With a Bang

by RainbowKittn



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Gunshot, Pete's World, Possible Character Death, Regeneration, Time Lord Rose, does regeneration count?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7163990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowKittn/pseuds/RainbowKittn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dimension hopping really was dangerous for Rose. One day she learns it the hard way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out With a Bang

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is about Rose regenerating into a Time Lord, and therefore sort of dying? Also mentions of being shot, so read with your own caution.  
> I'm working on an eventual longer story set some time after this, but this works as a one-shot, so I'm posting it separately. If you like it, though, there's more coming eventually.
> 
> This was written to one of the "52 short stories in 52 weeks" prompt of "A story that begins with a gunshot."  
> Many thanks to my beta FSSZilla.  
> Nothing belongs to me.

BANG! One moment, and everything changes. One blink, and a whole life is altered. One twitch of a finger, and the world stops. Having travelled in time, Rose was more familiar than most with how it worked, and in that moment she was certain it had slowed to a crawl. One moment, everything was normal, then nothing was. Rose’s eyes flew wide open as she stared at the warrior in front of her. Her hands moved to clutch the blistering pain in her chest. She gasped for a breath, but it wouldn’t come. The warrior lowered his gun and Rose lowered her gaze. Red weeped through a hole in her shirt. She swayed. Her wide eyes looked back up to see the warrior turn and walk away, satisfied with what he had done. Her eyes continued up and up as she fell backwards. She hit the ground hard, gasping, unblinking. This was it. She was going to die. Her hands shook as she reached for the button to send her back home. Just as she reached it, she finally realized what the letters on the ceiling above her read. “Bad Wolf.” Rose slammed the button and screamed into the void as she was torn apart and sent back home. She blacked out before she got there.

It was only a matter of time, really. She had been hopping through dimensions for a few years now, and this wasn’t the first time she had landed in unfriendly territory. Not having any idea where you were going could lead to a lot of problems. Usually, if she felt she was in danger, she would just send herself home immediately. It was a promise she had made to her mother when this had all started. This jump, she hadn’t had time to do that. She’d landed in the middle of a long war, and someone had seen her. He had assumed she was a member of the opposite side, trying to use magic to get enemy secrets, and had immediately raised a weapon on her. She’d tried to convince him that she wasn’t from either side, that she wasn’t from that area at all, but he didn’t listen. Rose should have expected this to happen eventually. She should have realized she would never make it back to the Doctor. The universe wasn’t that kind.

 

Rose awoke groggily. She always did the day after a jump. She tried to think about how it had gone, tried to pull the memories through the fog. Her eyes flew open. The first memory she found was the last one she had. “Bad Wolf.” She tried to get up, but she felt the tug of something on her hand. She looked down and realized she was in a hospital bed, a monitor attached to her finger. Finally, the rest of her memories filtered in. She remembered the warrior. The gunshot. She should be dead!

Rose flung back the sheet with her free hand and pulled the hospital gown away from her body. She looked at her chest, to where there had been a bleeding hole before, but she looked completely normal. No hole in her chest, not even a scar! She stared down, unable to process what was happening. She was certain that she had been shot. It felt too real to possibly have been a dream. A woman poked her head in through the door. Rose looked up at the noise and recognized her immediately; she was a Torchwood nurse.

“Oh, you’re finally awake! Just let me get the doctor, dear. Stay right there, I’ll be back in just a moment.” The nurse left through the door, leaving it slightly ajar. 

Other noises started filtering into Rose’s stunned brain. People chattering out in the hallway, the soft beeps of her monitors. Hold on… Rose turned her head to look at the monitor next to her bed and her eyes widened. It was beating out a double rhythm. Ever so slowly, Rose reached her hand up and laid it on the left side of her chest. She could feel her heart beating normally underneath her palm. She hesitated for a moment before sliding her hand over to the right side and gasped. She could feel a second heart beating under her fingers. She sat still, completely in shock, until a different woman walked into the room. Rose heard the woman sigh softly and turned her head to the sound.

“I was hoping to talk to you before you noticed, but it looks like I’m too late. I’m Doctor Trish Davies.” She took a few steps into the room closer to Rose.

Rose just stared wide-eyed at the doctor. “This is impossible….” she muttered.

The doctor chuckled lightly. “We thought so too, but there seems to be pretty good proof to the contrary. We’ve run many tests, and there seem to be a few things that have changed. You have two hearts, as you’ve noticed. You also have two livers, and a number of other organs we don’t recognize. Your DNA has also altered; it appears to have 3 strands instead of the usual 2. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.” The doctor seemed thoroughly confused and just a bit excited, but Rose knew exactly what was happening. She also knew it to be completely impossible.

Rose gasped and whispered, “Bad Wolf…”

“Sorry?”

“I think I might know what’s…” Rose snapped to her senses and stopped herself mid-sentence. “Is my family here?”

“Yes, they’re just down the hall, but what’s going…”

“Please let me see them,” Rose interrupted. She knew that answering questions right now wasn’t a good idea. She needed to get her parents to get her out of here. Even with her father being in charge of Torchwood in this universe, it wasn’t good to let them know too much about Time Lords.

“I’ll get the nurse to fetch them in just a moment, but first, why don’t you tell me what’s happening?”

“Please,” Rose implored. “I really need to see them.” Rose set her face in a vulnerable expression and hoped the doctor would take pity on her. Luckily, it worked.

“Okay, I’ll let them visit, but later, you need to tell me what you know so we can make sure everything’s safe, alright?”

Rose nodded earnestly. She had no intention of being here later. When the doctor turned and left the room, Rose let out a huff of air. This was all impossible. But she had done the impossible before, right? She had completely destroyed the dalek army as the Bad Wolf, and based on the message she’d seen, she must have made this happen as well.

The door flew open and a flurry of blonde hair raced towards her. “Oh, Rose, I was so worried about you!” Jackie barely stopped herself from sobbing into her shoulder. Pete entered just a little behind her, carrying Tony.

“I’m okay, mum. More than okay, really. I feel wonderful!” Rose smiled as her mum pulled back to look at her. It was then that Rose noticed yet another difference. She was seeing colors differently, like there were more of them than she was used to. Rose gaped, staring at her mother, for half a second before shaking her head and turning to Pete. “You need to get me out of here right now.”

“Sweetheart, you’ve been unconscious for 3 days.” Jackie started worriedly. “They’ve been running all sorts of tests. They said you’ve changed, but they won’t tell us what’s happening.”

Rose just nodded. “3 days? I should be alright then. At least, I think so. Who knows if it’s the same for me?” Rose devolved into nearly-hysterical laughter, earning her a worried look from Jackie. She squared her face and looked at her mum seriously. “I’ve got two hearts now, just like the Doctor, and a third strand in my DNA. He told me once that Time Lords have a triple-helix for their DNA. Mum, I don’t know how, but I think I changed to be like him.”

Jackie shook her head violently. “No. That can’t be! You’re my daughter, Rose. My human daughter! You can’t be a bloody alien!”

“Mum, I know. I don’t understand any of this right now, but don’t you see? It’s wonderful!” Rose smiled broadly, but she noticed Jackie still looked distraught and wiped the smile off her face. “Mum... I died. I got shot in the chest, and I was dying, and instead, I must have regenerated. Wait! Do I look different?” Rose looked around wildly for a mirror, but she couldn’t find one.

“No, Rose, you look just the same. So you can’t have done, right? He changed his face when he did!”

“I don’t know, mum. I really don’t. But becoming a Time Lord is the only thing that makes sense. Time Lady? Hmm… I’ll have to ask….” Rose stopped herself short, all hint of smile disappearing from her face. “I have to find him.”

“Rose, you just said yourself that you almost died,” Pete stepped in reasonably. “You have to take a break from the dimension hopping.”

“Don’t you see?! He’s the only Time Lord alive! Or, was. I have to find him.” Rose went into a panic She threw her sheets off the bed and yanked at the monitor on her finger until Jackie stopped her.

“You can’t leave yet. The doctors don’t think it’s safe. They want to make sure you’re okay.”

Rose looked at her mother for a moment before turning to Pete. “You have to get me out of here. They can’t know about Time Lords. They don’t exist in this universe, and Torchwood could do very dangerous things with the knowledge. You know that. Even as the one in charge, you don’t know everything that goes on, and you never know what they could do with that knowledge in the future. It’s too dangerous. They can’t know.” Rose put every ounce of sincerity into her voice. She hoped her father would realize the dangers involved in her staying and allowing the doctors to run more tests.

Pete looked at her seriously for a moment and sized up her claims, then nodded. “Are you sure you’re safe to leave?”

Jackie started to protest, but Rose nodded. “As sure as I can be.”

“Okay. We brought you clothes, over in that bag.” Pete pointed to a small duffle on a table in the corner. “Get changed, and I’ll go talk to the nurses.” Jackie once again started to argue, but Pete turned to her. “Rose is right, we can’t let them know too much. She’ll be just as fine at home as she is here.”

Jackie harrumphed, but nodded. “I’ll help her get dressed.” Pete kissed her cheek before leaving the room. Jackie turned on Rose, “You better be right. If you die again, I’ll kill ya.” 

Rose laughed while pulling the monitor off her finger. She stood slowly, letting her legs get used to her weight again after having been out for three days. A full regenerative coma, then. Rose felt fine, so hopefully everything had gone well. She would still have to find a mirror to make sure she looked the same. Hopefully, the Doctor could explain that when she found him again. A sudden stab of worry ran through her. What if the Doctor didn’t want to be around her now? What if it was too painful to be around another time lord after what he had done during the war. Or, maybe he would be relieved. He always seemed so upset about being the only one left, all alone. Now she could actually give him forever.

Rose was pulled out of her thoughts as a pair of jeans hit her arm. Jackie stood over by the bag Pete had pointed out before, grabbing out clothes. “Knickers?” Rose requested.

“Yeah, yeah, they’re in here somewhere….” Jackie pulled out a pair and threw them onto the bed, next to Rose. Rose carefully started getting dressed. She was a touch wobbly on her feet, but it seemed to just be due to not using those muscles for so long. She could tell that she would be stronger now than she had been before. Jackie came over with the rest of Rose’s clothes and helped her out of the hospital gown. Just as Rose pulled the t-shirt over her head, there was a knock at the door. Jackie yelled to come in, and Pete poked his head in.

“They’ve let me check her out, but they’re not happy about it. Best we get a move on before they come up with an excuse to keep us.” Rose just nodded. Jackie grabbed the bag and helped her daughter stay steady on the walk out.

On the ride home, Rose thought through many things. Her brain felt full, and was still taking in more information than she was used to. All of this thought left her absolutely sure of one thing. Now, more than ever before, she had to get back to the Doctor. She had to let him know that he was no longer alone.


End file.
